The final session of the day at the Lawyer Marketing Leadership Summit Event 2025 saw Emma Lago (Global Head of PR & Communications — Bird & Bird) host a panel made up of Adam Soames (Global Chief Business Development Officer- Ashurst), Simon Kane (Head of Business Development — Womble Bond Dickinson) and Ed Fitzgerald (Director of Brands- RPC)

How can firms effectively prioritise the sectors or clients to focus on?

Simon was first to state that they use a sector-led approach at Womble Bond in the UK, whilst Ed highlighted an authenticity to RPC's approach that is backed up with data.

Adam highlighted the segmentation model at Ashurst where they look at the strength of the relationship that they have with clients backed up by financial data.  They look at their top 20 global firms and highlight another 35 after that.

Simon is a year into his role at Womble Bond and talked about how they have launched a new client program due to the fact that they had too many clients that they focused on.  They have looked at how the data aligns with growth and engaged with lead partners in each of the sectors.  They have focused on 10 key clients to start and found that 80% of revenue has been prioritized through sector areas.

Adam talked about the fact that they have aligned their 6 co-heads with 6 priority industries at Ashurst.  This also aligns nicely with the geographical landscape at the firm.

How can marketing and BD leaders ensure their strategy is aligned to what clients want, rather than what the firm wants to sell?

Ed mentioned that at RPC they are interpreting through the sector lense what the actual clients want and not what the internal stakeholders want, but it is a balance.

Adam talked through a focus at Ashurst on catching internal client feedback and looking at where to play and how to win as a key focus.  This also then informs strategy in areas like their thought leadership programs and is linked to the 3–5 key topics that the firm will focus on over the course of a year.

What role does data play in shaping, measuring and evolving sector/client strategies?

Simon and his team use market intelligence combined with what is happening in the global economy.  CRM data is then overlaid to look at where the strongest relationships are.  At Womble Bond they are also encouraging lawyers to remove knowledge from their heads and into the hands of clients.

At RPC they look at cost, time tracking and then activity outcome.

How can internal collaboration between MBD, partners, knowledge teams and client leads be structured to drive long-term success?

Adam highlighted the energy sector and the move back from renewable to oil, gas and nuclear energy. At Ashurst they are able to pivot and move quickly to reflect these changes.

Ed pointed to the Russian invasion and the potential for RPC to have lost their litigation practice overnight.  Instead, they didn't panic, stuck with it and evolved it over time.

Simon stressed the need to invest in business development teams so that they are specialists in their markets.  They have to have and show the passion for their industries to succeed.  To keep this in place there is a structure and documentation.  They are also big on sharing best practices, sharing sector case studies and talking about them at regional town hall meetings.

Adam added that to remain consistent across all sectors at Ashurst, they think global but act local with all of their teams working very closely together to achieve this. 

Success can then be measured in a variety of ways, with goal setting important across all firms represented on the panel.  An ‘if you can measure it, it will get done’ mentality. Other ways to measure success the panel listed:

• Overall client relationship scales
• Physical interactions
• Feedback
• Stickiness of a client
• Measuring touchpoints